August 20, 2024
by Stephen T. Messenger
Let’s be honest: ignoring problems is way easier than confronting them. When some conflict or issue arises, we don’t want to deal with it—hopefully it will work itself out, right?
I’m guilty of this just as much as anyone. I’ve sat on the sidelines many times and admired a problem, wishing it away instead of confronting it. Most of us have an inherent nature to avoid conflict, and we’d rather work on the parts of our job that bring us fulfillment and joy.
However, we are charged to confront problems. If we don’t, those small issues have a propensity to grow into bigger ones. This is especially true when dealing with people.
I can look back in time and see countless opportunities I’ve had to address poor behaviors and didn’t take immediate action. Perhaps it’s my desire to see the best in others or think everyone is looking out for the team and not themselves, but we’ve all let things go at home, work, and in the community.
I can remember one poor performer in our organization who just wasn’t doing their job. I passively talked to them a few times and tried to motivate them, but never held them accountable. While they were very receptive to the feedback in the conversations, the behaviors never changed. My poor excuses include the following: I was too busy to follow up, their actions weren’t doing too much harm, and there were more important issues to address.
Yet the poor performance got worse, everyone saw I wasn’t holding them accountable which frustrated the rest of the team, and I perpetuated a downward spiral of accepting mediocrity. The overall culture was affected, my credibility decreased, and the organization suffered because I failed to confront an issue.
As in the fourth quality of leadership—the gun—when we identify problems, we must fix bayonets and close with and destroy that enemy. Don’t wait. Just attack.
Fix Bayonets
June 11, 1944. Carentan, France. D-Day plus five.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole, battalion commander in the 101st Airborne Division, ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge a heavily fortified position.
He spent the last two days fruitlessly trying to take the village of Carentan and was continuously deterred. With Nazi artillery falling on his position and casualties mounting, he had to do something besides admire the problem in front of him.
Cole gave the order to fix bayonets and called in artillery smoke between him and the town. At 0615, Cole blew his whistle and sprinted forward with his remaining 265 able-bodied paratroopers. Dodging in and around farmhouses, hedgerows, and ditches, the battalion took a terrible beating, but eventually more than 100 paratroopers reached the German lines with bayonets leading the charge.
Upon reaching the enemy, the Americans engaged in a bloody, hand-to-hand battle, overwhelming the Nazis physically and mentally. In the face of American aggression, the defenders panicked and fled, leaving Carentan in the hands of the Allies.
The battle came at a terrible cost. Only 132 men remained combat effective out of the original 700 ordered to take the town. But the small victory unified the Utah and Omaha beachheads, allowing Allied forces to consolidate inland. The commander’s willingness to attack the enemy set conditions for future success.
Cole’s actions earned him the Medal of Honor. He understood that his role as a leader was to aggressively solve the problem before him and act when needed.
Address Problems Head On
The number one solution for solving problems is to confront them—now. Just like bad news, problems rarely get better with time. We must fix bayonets and engage those problems before they become worse.
This step is the hardest because no one wants to deal with today’s troubles. But as I’ve said many times, if there were no problems, they wouldn’t need us in leadership positions. Therefore, when we see a people problem, and someone not meeting known expectations, we have to address them immediately and let them know why they are failing, how to get better, and consequences if they do not.
When I worked for a Fortune 500 Company twenty years ago, they had a great model of dealing with people problems. It was a simple, four-step conversation.
1. “When you do this…”
First, we lay out the behavior that’s the problem. For example, “When you are late to work…” People problems are behavioral based. If that person understands the clear expectation and is not meeting it, it’s our job to call them out. This behavioral-focused statement is designed to alert them to a specific poor behavior that is not okay.
2. “I feel…”
This second step is our opportunity to let them know how it makes us feel and the impact it has on the team. If we don’t tell them, they may never know. It’s important when people are failing to meet the standard, they hear that we’re disappointed, upset, frustrated, or whatever we’re feeling at the time and the impact on the group. This is a wake-up call from a boss to a subordinate.
3. “In the future…”
The third step is to let them know how to recover. Just because there’s a problem doesn’t mean it’s irrecoverable—quite the opposite. The reason we have this conversation is to get the person back on track and rowing in sync with the rest of the crew. We lay out clear requirements and standards that the person must follow to meet organizational goals.
4. “If nothing changes, the consequence is…”
This final step is to clearly communicate that there will be repercussions if the behavior doesn’t change. This step is critical to cementing positive behavior. The first three steps outlined the “carrot” portion of getting someone to change. This is the “stick” portion. We must be clear that there will be consequences if they don’t change.
When we put these four steps together, we get a concise narrative, able to be delivered in a very short period of time with no back-and-forth discussion. The goal is to eliminate all ambiguity and have the other person understand they have been messing up, there’s lots of grace, and they will be held accountable if they don’t change.
Only after our statement is complete will we take questions and have a discussion, but we never stray off our talking points. And as a final thought, we need to give them enough encouragement on the way out so they want to make a change for the better. Some time later, we follow-up and ensure they’re upholding their part of the bargain.
This Isn’t Easy
Admittedly, it is much easier to ignore problems than to deal with them. Yet, when we do that, they just get worse. Our job is to find the areas where we need to engage, establish clear expectations, provide guidance on where and how to get better, communicate consequences if nothing changes, and encourage them to get better.
Don’t ignore problems. Like Robert Cole who saw an issue in front of him and took action, fix bayonets and attack.
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This series is part of our BRAG+1 Leadership Philosophy. If you’re just joining us, start from the beginning on 16 January: A Team to BRAG about and continue from there:
Boots: Put Boots on the Ground
Regimentals: Place Service over Self
Armor: Be Resilient to Life’s Attacks
Gun: Close with and Destroy the Enemy
+1 (Belt): Not a Hint, Sniff, nor Whiff of Impropriety
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